TV: Syrian Army 'Cleaned' Damascus’ Midan District
Syrian military forces have routed rebel fighters from the Midan district of Damascus, state television said Friday, but a monitoring group said fighting was still ongoing.
"Our brave army forces have completely cleaned the area of Midan in Damascus of the remaining mercenary terrorists and have reestablished security," the broadcaster said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a statement, said "seven tanks and two armed personnel carriers stormed the district" of Midan, in southern Damascus.
The assault was ongoing, and explosions could be heard in the area, the group said.
The Observatory also said Syrian regime forces launched an assault on the eastern Damascus neighborhood of Jubar on Friday.
"Syrian regular forces, including trucks and cars packed with heavily armed men, stormed the district of Jubar," the Britain-based watchdog said, adding that "searches had begun" in the neighborhood.
The reported assault came shortly after Syrian state television announced that regime forces had "cleaned" the Midan neighborhood of Damascus of "terrorists."
The attacks came after a night of fighting in several other districts across the capital, the Observatory said.
"Fighting broke out in Kfar Sousa, where a taxi driver was killed by gunfire, and al-Hajar al-Aswad," the Britain-based watchdog chief Rami Abdel Rahman, told Agence France Presse.
As rebels seeking to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad step up their offensive in the capital, the army has responded in kind, launching an assault on the Qaboon district for the first time on Thursday.
The Observatory said "more than 15 tanks and armed personnel carriers" were taking part in the attack on Qaboon, in the east of the city.
Source: Agence France Presse
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